Chapter 5

Adelina POV

The next morning, the breakroom at Davenport Tech felt more like a sterile laboratory than a place for coffee. Brushed steel and white Corian surfaces gleamed under harsh fluorescent lights, trapping the aggressive, metallic scent of Jase's cologne that always seemed to linger in the air.

I stood in the corner by the high-end espresso machine, clutching the physical "Henderson Pack Alliance" file against my chest. I just needed to drop it on his desk and leave.

"Did you see *The Howl* this morning?" a voice snickered.

I froze. Two young Davenport Pack members walked in, their eyes glued to a smartphone. They didn't even notice me standing in the shadows.

"Yeah. Alpha Jase is officially introducing Kira Parrish as the new Luna at the Annual Gala tonight," the taller one said, leaning against the counter. "About time. I don't know how much longer we were supposed to pretend that wolfless Omega was anything more than a placeholder."

"Exactly," the other scoffed. "She was just a convenient bed-warmer. An Alpha like Jase was never going to actually complete the Marking with a stray. Kira is highborn. She's what this Pack needs."

Their words were like silver blades sliding between my ribs. A *placeholder*. A *stray*. In the eyes of the entire Davenport Pack, I had never been an equal. I was just an object to be used and discarded. The sheer humiliation of it burned away the last pathetic shreds of loyalty I held for Jase.

My hands trembled with a sudden, violent surge of anger. I blindly reached for my mug, but my shaking fingers knocked it askew.

*Hiss.*

Scalding water and steam shot from the machine, splashing directly over the back of my left hand.

I gasped, stumbling back as the ceramic mug shattered on the floor. Because I was wolfless, I didn't have the rapid healing of a normal wolf. The skin instantly turned an angry, blistering red, the pain searing through my nerve endings.

"Lina!"

Mandy, the human receptionist and the only person in this building who actually treated me like a person, rushed into the breakroom. She grabbed a stack of paper towels, her eyes wide with concern. "Oh my god, let me get some ice-"

"No," I breathed out, gritting my teeth against the throbbing pain. I reached into my blazer pocket with my good hand and pulled out a crisp, sealed envelope. "Mandy, I need a favor. Take this to HR."

She looked at the envelope, then up at me. "Is this...?"

"My resignation," I confirmed, my voice steadying. "Make sure it's processed and time-stamped before the Annual Gala tonight."

Mandy swallowed hard, taking the envelope. "Lina, when Jase finds out you did this right before his big announcement... his inner wolf is going to go ballistic."

"That's the point," I whispered.

Before Mandy could say anything else, the heavy, oppressive scent of Jase's metallic cologne spiked in the hallway. He was coming.

I didn't want to face him. Not yet. I slipped out the side door and ducked into the emergency stairwell. The heavy metal door clicked shut just as Jase's footsteps echoed in the corridor.

The stairwell was claustrophobic, smelling of cold concrete and stale dust. I pressed my back against the wall, peering through the narrow glass slit in the door.

Jase was striding down the hall, flanked by two Beta subordinates. He looked furious.

"Where is she?" Jase snapped, his voice vibrating with that undeniable Alpha's Command that made the Betas lower their heads. "I don't care if she's clearing out her desk. Tell Adelina she is to deliver the Henderson Alliance file to me, personally, at the Gala tonight."

"Yes, Alpha," one of the Betas murmured.

"She thinks she can just quietly slip away?" Jase sneered, adjusting his expensive cuffs. "She works for me until I say otherwise. She will bring that file, and she will stand there and watch me take my true Luna."

He walked out of sight, leaving a suffocating silence in his wake.

It was a power play. A final, public humiliation. He wanted to parade me in front of the entire Pack elite as his broken, obedient servant.

In the dim light of the stairwell, my phone buzzed. A secure text illuminated the screen.

*Kain: Where are you? I'm sending a car.*

The urge to say yes was intoxicating. To let the Lycan King's Maybach sweep me away to the safety of my penthouse. But the blood of a former Alpha ran in my veins, and my pride refused to let Kain see me cowering in a dusty stairwell, hiding from my ex.

*Adelina: Dealing with a Pack emergency. I'll handle it.*

I hit send, knowing the word 'emergency' would keep him at bay, at least for tonight. I looked down at my left hand. The burn was swelling into a painful, fluid-filled blister.

I wasn't going to run. I would walk into that ballroom tonight, hand over the file, and look Jase Davenport in the eye as I walked out of his life forever.